Improved machine for separating ores



UNrrEn STATES Pn'rENrMQEEicE.

srErnEN E. KEoM, or NEW vonk, N. Y.

lIMPROVED MACHINE FOR SEPARATING ORES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 81,7911, datedSeptember 1, 1868.; antedated i August 5,1868.

To all whom 'it may concern: l

Be it known that I, STEPHEN VR'KROM, ,ofl the city and county of NewYork, in the State V ing `different specic gravities; 'and I do herebydeclare that the following is a full and exact description thereof.

My machine uses intermittent jets or puffs, 1

which agitate the'granular matter on the perforated bed, and allow it,in moving forward i thereon, to separate by the di'erence in gravity,the heavier masses sinking and the lighter rising under the peculiarconditions thus induced. Y

My machine also discharges the lighter material over a dam orobstruction into'one vessel or receptacle, while the heavymaterial isconducted down into another, andis discharged fromsuch other 'passageslowly,jholding the `passage always lled to hold back a properaccumulation of material at rthe top. All these above-named featureshave been before known and approved.

My invention relates to details of the mechanism by which I increase theefficiency of the machine with a given expenditure lof power and a givenareaJ of perforated bed, and by which I am able to act with the highestdegree of efficiency with varying speeds of the machine, and am alsoable to better protect the mechanism from dust, 85e., and to betterregulate or graduate the discharge of thc material.

In the course of my experiments `I have found that increasing thesuddenness of the upward `stroke of the bellows, and bringing the ore onthe ore-bed very close to such bed, or, as I prefer to term it, in anunder current, has the effect to avoid the necessity for a great lengthof the perforated bed.

I am able to separate the ore or other granular material on a very shortlength, and consequently can, with a given area of machine,

greatly increase what may be termed the width of the ore-bed, so thatits width, considered relatively to the motion of the granular mat- `terthereon, is much greater than its length.

' I will first `proceed to describe what I consider the best means `ofcarrying out my inore-bed and the overflow of tailings.

cape of air at the rear of the bellows.

vention, and will afterward designate the points which `I believe to benew therein.

The accompanying drawings form a part of this specification.

Figure l is a front View of the machine, with a portion of the casingbroken away to exhibit the inclosed machinery. Fig. 2 is a verticalsection, showing an end view of theJ said inprincipal working parts.

The relations of the mechanism will be tolerably apparent from thedrawings.

C is a trip-wheel. D is the bellows. Sis the bellows-shaft or rockingshaft. E is a rubber strap or spring. F isthe arm which takes hold ofthe bellows-shaft S. Gr is a pin in arm F, against which the trip-wheelacts. H H' are pulleys to give slow motion to a corrugated roller, L. Iis the sieve or ore-bed. J is the channel for rich ore, or the heaviestgranular matter, to flow'slowly down. N is the gate to regulate thedelivery of ore on the sieve I. K is a gate to regulate the depth of oreon the M is the hopper, in which to introduce the ore or other granularmaterial to be separated. T is the pulley to attach the power. T is thetripwheel shaft. X is a pin for `pulley H to revolve on. Y Y are thefront and rear plates or sides of the `frame-work. R is the valvepassagcor induction-aperture, which receives `the air into the space above thebellows D. Z

is a piece of soft leather or other tight and flexible material, whichforms thel'iiap or valve for the passage R, and also prevents the es-The front of the bellows is made to run in nearly air-tight contact withthe hollow rear face of the longitudinal piece Y. i

The screws and other obvious means of connecting and adjusting the partswill be understood by good mechanics from the drawings without prolongeddescription.

Themachine is operated as follows: Ore being placed in thehopper M andthe mechanism being set in motion, as each projection on the trip-wheelC comes in contact with the pin G, the lever E is thrown back, and thebellows l) is carried down. The moment the projection passes the pin Grthe rubber spring E, which connects the lever F with the fixed pin Wquickly carries the lever and bellows back to Ztheir original position.At each revolution of the trip-wheel C this operation is repeated somany times as there are teeth or projections on the trip-wheel. Eachupward movement of the bellows forces the air above through the sieve,and agitates the ore lying thereon. Each puff of air tends to lift thelighter portion to the surface and allow the heavier portion to sink tothe bottom. The lighter portion is thrown to the surface and carriedforward over the gate K, while the heavy or rich ore works forward tothe opening or channel J, where it sinks as fast as room is made by thedisplacement of ore Aat the bottom of this channel. This displacement-isregulated by means of the slowly-revolving roller L. The separationtakes place principally at the point where the ore is delivered from thehopper M on the orebed I. It will be seen that I deliver the ore on thbed in the form of a thin stream, and in the relation of an undercurrent to that lying on the ore-bed, so that the tailings or lightportion have but a short distance to traverse upward to become separatedfrom the heavy portion, and the heavy portion has no distance to sink,because it enters near the surface of the ore-bed. By this feature,combined with the quick or sharp puiis of air, obtained in the mannerjust described, I am enabled to use a very short traverse of the oreacross the bed.

I have found four hundred puffs of air perv minute to be about what isrequired for rapid work. More can be given without injury.

It is necessary that the parts which move at so rapid a rate should beas light as possible, and made in such a manner as will insure thegreatest durability.

By reducing my orebed I reduce correspondingly my bellows. Instead of alarge moving bellows I use a small one, and I separate on my short bedvery effectually.

Another advantage I obtain in reducing the weight of the moving partsis, less vibration or shake of the machine and less noise. Vi-

. bration tends to cause the heavy part of the ore to shift either toone side or the other, thus uncovering the opening for the delivery ofthe rich ore, or, by reason of the bed being more covered on one sidethanon the other, the air tends to escape all on the side least covered.

vIn order to work successfully, the machine should stand steady. If theaction of the puffs of air on the ore are not counteracted by anyvibration of the machine, the ore will be evenly distributed over theentire bed. The simple action of air on the ore in gentle puffs willvery evenly distribute the ore on the bed,

although very uneven before the puffs of air are given. The air willcounteract some shake of the machine, and in my machine no seriouseffect from shake is experienced.

My mode of workin g the bellows by the trip- Vwheel C and spring E isbetter than any before known, because I can, by its means, get avuniformquick upward movement of the bellows, and consequently a justsufficiently vigorous puff of air, whether the machine runs faster orslower than its usual speed. I usually prefer to obtain four hundred andtwenty puffs of air through the ore per minute.

If I put more projections on the trip-wheel C, then I may run thetrip-wheel at a lower speed; but I` consider it better to run at thisspeed for the sake of the steady motion the momentum will give, and thespeed of seventy revolutions does not strike the projections on thetrip-wheel so hard as to make this speed objectionable.

The rubber or other spring E is an important feature of my machine, tocarry back the bellows, not only on account of the quick manner in whichit acts, but each upward stroke is precisely alike, -so producing puffsof air of equal force at each upward movement of the bellows. No matterwhat may be the speed of the trip-wheel, whether fast or slow, the puffof airis the same.

In using the cam or crank as used in former machines, no such resultscan be obtained, because if the cam or crank moves slow, the bellowsmust move correspondingly slow, and when the speed greatly slackens, noadequate eiect is produced on the ore. v

I 'connect the discharging-roller L with the main shaft, which carriesthe trip-wheel C, so that if the trip-wheel revolves slowly, and thebellows give but few puffs of air through the ore per minute, andconsequently less ore is separated per minute, the corrugateddischarge-roller L drags less from the channel J Each part thus keepstime with the other, so the speed may be varied from fast to slow, andthe only effect produced will be the treatment of more or less ore.

As the richness of ore varies, and the proportion of rich ore or metalis greater or less, the speed of the roller L must be regulatedaccordingly. I have provideddiiferent speeds 'on the pulleys for thispurpose, the functions of which, in this combination, I esteem veryimportant, and the construction and arrangement of which will be readilyunderstood from the drawings. i

Ores also vary in gravity, and it is therefore necessary to vary thestrength of the pui's of air for different qualities of ore. I providemeans to accomplish this result in the use of the leather strap O andgraduated fastening O.

It will be understood that by holding the lever E back to a greaterextent by the strap O, the trip-wheel C does not move lever E through sogreat a space as when allowed to m'ove the full depth of the projectionon the trip-wheel. By this means I can regulate the differentthicknesses of strata.

The inclosing-box Bcontains the principal working parts, and protectsthem from grit and dirt.

A very long use of my trip-wheel C does not interfere with the perfectworkin g of the machine, because the projections are made long enough toadmit of considerable wear.

Instead of making my opening for ore and overow for tailings across themachine, I arran ge them lengthwise of the structure, as represented.Whatever diiference there is in the length of the opening, so much isthe capacity of the machine increased. For example, the width ofaworking machine as previously constructed was about one foot, and thedelivery corresponded to this width. I make the working machine heredescribed from four to six feet long, and the capacity of this machineis from four to six times as great as those before known, and the amountof sieve-surface to do this greater amount of separation of ore is onlyone-fourth as much, and, as before stated, the amount of power requiredis greatly diminished.

By employing a bellows hinged on the shaft S, instead of moving directlyup and down, I not only get an easy movement, but am enabled to operateit with few parts and very simple devices. v By placing the workingparts G F, &:c`., at the end of the machine, I am enabled to inclose theprincipal workin g parts in a tight box or case, B, without additionalframework.

Having now fully described my invention, what I claim as new inseparating-machines, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is asfollows:

l. Introducing the material upon the bed I in a thin stratum close tothe surface of the bed, substantially in the manner and for the purposeherein set forth.

2. Traversing the material across'the perforated bed I transversely tothe length of the machine-that is to say, extending the bed Ilongitudinally of the length of the frame-work A, and causing thematerial to traverse across its narrowest dimensions, substantially asand for the purpose herein set forth.

3. 'Ihe roller L,`arranged and operating as represented relatively tothe discharge-passage J ,for the purposes herein set forth.

4. The trip-wheel C and lever F G, or their respective equivalents,arranged relatively to the bellows D and to the perforated bed I and itsconnections, as and for the purposes herein set forth.

5. In combination with the perforated bed I, and with means forintroducing and removing the material, as specified, mounting thebellows D on a rocking shaft, S, and operatingit by an adjustablevibrating motion, substantially as and for the purposes hereinspecified.u

6. The gates N and K, so arranged as to allow the separate orsimultaneous changes in the thickness and velocity of the strata on theore-bed I, substantially as and for the purposes herein set forth.

7. In combination, the ore-bed I, with its feeding and dischargingdevices, the adjustable oscillating bellows D, the trip-wheel C and itsconnections, and the means H H1 H2, or their equivalent-s, for varyingthe rate of discharge through the passage J, all arranged for jointoperation, substantially as and for the purposes herein set forth.

8. 'Ihe within-described arrangement of the operating parts C F andtheir connections at the end of the main frame-work A, so that they mayoperate by a direct connection through the rocking-shaft S with thebellows D, and that the Aclosed end of the frame A shall form one entireside of an inclosing-case to protect the working mechanism, all as andfor the purposes herein set forth.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my name in presence of twosubscribing witnesses.

S. R. KROM.

Witnesses W. G. DEY, C. C. Lrvmes.

